every dog will have his day
by theghostqueen
Summary: If every dog will have his day, I guess Wade deserves years. WadexZoe, their relationship and how it progress from casual to those three little words. "If Wade's learned one thing about happiness, it's that it doesn't last, and if he's learned one thing about relationships, it's that they never last either." Mostly Wades POV.


If every dog will have his day, then Wade must deserve years.

/

He's not quite sure when he and Zoe start seeing each other every day, spending hours talking and fucking and sitting on the couch while the sun goes down. It just kind of happens, like everything else in Wade Kinsella's life. This development is one of the ones he can't complain about, though.

Sometimes he thinks about Zoe, when he finds time to when they're not together, and he doesn't know what's happening but the other day he looked at her and he felt his heart fucking grow warm. What is he turning into? Next thing he knows he'll be fucking George Tucker or something.

/

If Wade has learned one thing in his life about happiness, it's that it doesn't last, and if he's learned one thing about relationships, it's that they never last, and hell, if he's learned one thing about life it's that nothing lasts. So when he sees Zoe talking to George, all close and intimate, he bites down the bile rising from his throat and just says _I told you so_ to himself.

She shows up at his door, later that night, though, like every night. "Hey Wade," she smiles at him, bright and doe eyed, her pale skin illuminated by the florescent lights on his porch. He doesn't move to allow her in like he usually does, though. "Whats up?" he asks. "Did you need something?" He can't fucking stand the confused look he gives her.

"No," she says, looking at him oddly. "I just thought we could hang out."

"That's the thing with you people, always needing to," and at this, he makes quotes in the air with his fingers,"hang out' with people. You would think you could stick to hanging out with someone once a day."

"This is the first time I've seen you all day." Zoe is almost pouting now, that persistent little crinkle on her forehead she gets when she's frustrated already starting to appear.

"Well, it isn't the first time I saw you. And if George Tucker walked onto this porch it wouldn't be the first time I saw him today, either."

Zoe looks at him for a few seconds, something between indignation and a self-satisfied smirk forming on her face. "Wade, last time I checked I'm a completely independent woman. I can talk to anyone I want to for as long as I want."

"I never said you couldn-" he starts to say as Zoe pushes past him, quite rudely if he's concerned, but he isn't, into his house and sits on the couch.

"Besides, he just asked me his advice on getting a girl to go out with him. But your jealousy is really cute."

"I am not jealous," he says, almost to himself, as he watches Zoe smooth her skirt like the Southern belle she would never be.

"Okay," she smiles, flipping through the channels on the television, remote in hand, leaving just enough space on the couch for him to sit and be pressed up against her.

"Wade Kinsella does not get jealous," he repeats, louder this time, more assertive, walking over to the couch and standing right in front of her, blocking her view of the television she didn't even pretend to pay attention to.

"I said okay," she laughs, and pulls him down by his shirt collar into a kiss.

"Never been jealous a day in my life," he says in between kisses as he settles on top of her.

/

After Zoe leaves for work in the morning, he goes over to Lavon's for breakfast because Zoe's the only one who's been food shopping in his house recently and he really doesn't feel like trying to eat any of that healthy crap. He hasn't seen his best friend in a while- he knows Lavon's been busy with his campaign, and he's been busy with… other things.

"Wade, my man," Lavon says with this funny grin on his face. "Nice to see you. What brings you around?"

"Breakfast," Wade replies, wasting no time going into the cabinet and grabbing his favorite cereal.

"You too busy to buy food?"

"No, Zoe only buys this healthy crap and it's disgusting," he almost frowns as he pours the milk into his sugary cereal, tasting the first delicious bite, filled with frosting and carbohydrates and all those other things Zoe wouldn't like.

"So Zoe's doing the food shopping for you now? I haven't really seen her around much either," Lavon smirks, and though his voice is casual an undercurrent of seriousness runs through it that Wade can detect, and it makes him want to flee, but he's already started his cereal and he'd be damned if he didn't finish it.

"It was just the other day," he says. "Yeah, sometimes she ends up staying over. It's just more convenient that way, you know. No big deal."

"You ask her to be your girlfriend yet?"

Wade almost spits out his cereal into Lavon's face. "What?" He finally is able to swallow his food down and contemplates shoving more cereal in his mouth just to avoid answering the question. "No, it's just a casual thing between friends. No questions asked."

"Wade," Lavon says very slowly, as if he's a child, "you guys spend all of your time together."

"That's not true. Besides, man, we spent all our time together in high school! It didn't mean we were more than friends."

"We weren't having sex."

"And I know that's the biggest disappointment of your high school career, buddy," Wade smirks, not missing a beat. He looks down at his cereal, at some of the sugar that had floated its way to the top, and takes another bite, chewing slowly. If he's being honest with himself, the cereal tastes way too sweet in his mouth, and it tastes like a heart attack waiting to happen. He swallows it quickly and high tails it out of there before Lavon can ask any more of his stupid questions.

/

He's on his way to the home department store, picking up some more tiles for Zoe's bathroom, and he passes a flower shop. His mind flickers to Zoe instantly, before it even realizes in what direction its thoughts are heading. Wade recognizes what just happened, how he thought of her soon as he saw flowers and he has no excuses to hide behind, and he almost loses control of the damn car and swerves off the road. "Oh,_ fuck_," he spits. "Fuck."

He doesn't stop for flowers, but he buys the fucking tiles.

/

She's slept at his house every night for a few weeks straight, now. His house is starting to smell like her perfume, which drives him so crazy when she isn't there, and she's taken over more than half of her closet, which might annoy him if he had more clothes, but he doesn't, so it doesn't.

She takes the left side of the bed and he takes the right and it's natural and no questions are asked but he knows this is becoming far from casual and he tries not to be okay with it. He tries so desperately to miss picking up random girls every night, being a free man, but he looks at her, at her dark hair and chocolate brown eyes, and her cute little ski slope nose, and her sexy petite body, and her-fuck, what was he saying again?

/

"My mother is coming into town for a visit," she tells him a few weeks later, smiling.

"Really? That's great," he says, although he's not really sure what it is yet, but it puts a smile on her face so he can't complain.

"She's arriving next week," Zoe says. "Do you want to come out to dinner with us when she gets here?"  
He freezes, right there in the bed. He doesn't move. "What?"

"The night she gets here, we're going to go out to dinner," she explains, biting her lip in that cute way of hers when she isn't sure if she's being too forward or not. "You'll come, right?"

"Of course I'll come," he says, because he can see the smile on her face at his words before it even arrives, and when it does form on her face, it's twice as sincere and three times beautiful as he anticipated. _I'm going to out to dinner with Zoe and her mom_, he tells himself. Then he thinks of something.

Zoe is already walking into the kitchen, so he tears himself out of bed and practically runs to her. "Wait!" he says. "Zoe… what will we say?"

"What?" she looks at him. They're always in the same book, in the same chapter, but never quite on the same page and that's what keeps them alive. "We'll just talk about anything. Don't worry, Wade, I'm sure you won't have to do much talking. Even you won't be able to embarrass yourself."

She's not even trying to cause him distress but panic builds up in his chest at her words. "No! What are we going to say about us?"

"Oh," she looks flustered for a minute, maybe embarrassed, and then she looks back up at him. " I'll just say you're my… Wade."

"No way," he says, because if he had a nice, proper mother and he took a girl home to her and said, "This is my Zoe," well, he's not sure what she'd do because he never had a real mother but he'd imagine she'd hit him over the head with her pocketbook. "That's not good enough."

"I don't know," she says slowly, and he doesn't know what she's feeling right now but he hopes it isn't vulnerability because he can't stand that. And then she looks at him with big eyes and a frown and knitted brows and her face looks so sad that he just wants to kiss every inch of it until she has to smile to get him to stop, or until she doesn't even want him to stop.

Now, Wade Kinsella has never had a proper mother but if he had one he would like to think that she'd be perfect and he wouldn't take her for granted and when he brought girls home to her he wouldn't give her half-assed explanations like "This is my Zoe." So, what he says next, he tells himself later, is just out of the kindness and understanding of his heart, and the goofy grin on his face that erupts when she replies is just because he's glad to help a friend out.

"Your boyfriend," he says, not quite looking into her eyes but staring into that stunning face all the same. "Just say, 'This is Wade, my boyfriend.' Ok?"

She laughs at him, and she steps closer to him, so close that their noses are touching and his chest is almost pressed against hers and he pretends that he can't practically feel her smile warming his heart. "Ok," she says, and presses her lips to his.

/

Wade spends all week agonizing over meeting Zoe's mother. He gets so nervous he doesn't even eat. He barely even sleeps. God, he can just picture himself doing something stupid like knocking over a glass of water, and spilling it all over her mom's fancy New York dress that costs more than his monthly rent. Or, the waitress will probably be some girl he used to go out with that isn't quite over him, and makes some big huge scene. And what the fuck is he supposed to wear to some ambiguous, vague dinner?

By the time the actual day of the dinner rolls around, he's almost freaking out. He texts Zoe and asks her what he should wear and she just tells him anything, to dress casual. He just takes two Advils for the very strong headache he feels coming on.

He decides to go to a store in a nearby town to buy a suit jacket and a dress shirt, and on the way back from the store, he passes the same flower shop he had passed a few weeks ago. He stops and gets Zoe some red roses that remind him of the smell of that perfume she always wears that drives him crazy, and he settles on some pretty tulips for her mom.

He walks over to Zoe's a few minutes before he needs to be there, ignoring the silly remark Lavon made to him as he saw him on his walk over ("Looking sharp, Wade! Wonder what's got you all dressed up?") because Lavon knows why he's dressed up and Lavon should not have laughed because nothing about this situation is remotely funny.

It takes a minute for Zoe to answer the door, and she's surprised because he's dressed so nicely and he's holding flowers and- is that really Wade Kinsella on her porch? "You look great, Wade," she says, and he literally almost collapses with relief. She has to stare at the two bouquets of flowers in his hand for a minute before he remembers they are there. "Oh!" he says, and hands her the heaping bouquet of red roses. "These are for you."

She looks so perfect and happy in that moment and he thinks that if he has to buy her flowers every day for the rest of their lives to put that smile on her face, then he will. "Thanks, Wade," she smiles at him.

They both turn as her mom walks into the foyer, and Wade is surprised because really her mom looks nice and not as intimidating as he expected. "Mom," she says, as she and Wade lock eyes, "this is my boyfriend, Wade."

"Hello, Ms. Hart," he says, stepping forward. "It's so nice to meet you. These are for you," he says with a nervous smile as she takes the flowers and smells them.

"Oh, Wade! It's so lovely to meet you. Thank you for the flowers. They're beautiful." She smiles at him so graciously, and he beams back at her because she is less like Zoe's scary mother that he anticipated, and more like Lavon's cookie-making, sweater-knitting grandmother.

She takes Zoe's flowers from her and starts walking towards the kitchen. "I'm going to put these in water, make sure they stay fresh for when we get home," she says, looking for the perfect vase. "Why don't you two get in the car?"

"Of course, Mom," Zoe says, and they walk outside, and Wade grabs her hand because he wants to and sometimes he looks at her and he just can't help himself. She kisses him passionately, and she looks up at him curiously. "Well, Wade, I'm very impressed!"

"Oh," he says nonchalantly, "I don't know why you would have expected anything less. Everyone knows I clean up good."

Her laughter rings out through the night, tinkling and clear and enchanting. "That's not what I meant," she says before they start kissing again, "but I'll take it."

He feels almost silly at dinner because they're at a restaurant only a step or two up from the Rammer Jammer, and her mom is wearing jeans, and she's just wearing a work outfit she hadn't even changed out of, and he's sitting there in a dress shirt and his nicest suit jacket. But, at the end of the night, he sees Zoe's mom looking at him with approval when she thinks he's not looking, and he knows it was all worth it.

/

Zoe and Wade are an official couple now but they're the kind of quiet official that doesn't have to announce itself because everyone already knew it was bound to happen. They spend their mornings waking up next to each other, a mess of limbs wrapped around their bodies, and they spend their nights talking and laughing and playing games and watching movies and doing everything they can possibly think of, and they spend their late nights panting, covered in sweat and surrounded by breathy moans because settling down and slowing down are not synonymous.

/

It takes him a while to figure out that he's in love with Zoe, maybe because he's never been in love before so he has nothing to compare it with, or maybe it's because he's Wade Kinsella and he might be a little more emotionally dense than the average person. After a while Lavon keeps relentlessly beating the idea into his head, though, and he doesn't confirm it but after a while he just doesn't waste his breath trying to deny it.

/

He and Zoe wake up one morning, and she decides that today is as good as a day as any for some food shopping. So, she goes around, throwing away old food, and making room for new stuff. He's sitting on the couch watching ESPN sports highlights and she yells at the television along with him when clips from the game that his favorite baseball team just lost come on. He turns around and smiles at her as she looks through the refrigerator, wearing only his shirt and a pair of lacy panties. He can't help thinking that he's never been happier in his life and if he could replay the past few months of his life over and over, he wouldn't complain, but he has this feeling they have still got this future ahead of them, this immeasurable potential that he can feel when their bodies are pressed together. He's still looking at her when she goes into the cabinet, pulling out his favorite sugary cereal. "Should I throw this away or do you want it? I'm trying to make more room in the cabinets."

"Hm, that depends," he says, rubbing the stubble on his chin as she looks at him with crinkly eyes and a smile. "Are we going to buy a different cereal at the store?"

"But of course we are," she smirks as he gets up and walks towards her, leaning on the counter, hovering over her as she turns to face him with a playful smile.

"Will it be as good as this cereal?"

"What do you think?" She asks, putting a hand on her hip and he resists the urge to take her right there on his-well, practically their- kitchen counter.

He doesn't move though, just lets her throw away his favorite sugary cereal, which will probably be replaced by some healthy crap with half the calories by the end of the day, but he doesn't really mind as long as it's her who's doing the replacing.

She's gone back to looking through the cabinets, now, but he's still staring at her, at the curve of her breasts visible through his shirt on her body, at her face without a trace of makeup, at her dewy skin illuminated by the beautiful day, at the way he lets her throw away her favorite cereal without putting up a real fight, and he doesn't like to say that he has the realization right there in the kitchen because that would be too cliché and Wade Kinsella is anything but fucking cliché. If someone asked, Wade would just say that these feelings had been building up inside him for a long time, and they just culminated at that point, and they were so surprising that Wade didn't even think about keeping them to himself because they came upon him so suddenly.

So, really, only Zoe was surprised when he walked closer to her in the kitchen and snaked his arms around her waist and turned her around to face him, pressing her against the kitchen counter gently. "Hey," he said planting a kiss on her lips tenderly. She smiled against his mouth. "Hello," she laughed when they broke apart, looking pleasantly surprised by his sudden affection.

"I'm in love with you."

/

**AN: I love Zoe and Wade so much! This wasn't supposed to be so one-sided Wade but it ended up that way. Whoops! Haha sorry if this seems rushed but it's late and I knew if I didn't finish it now I probably never would. Its past 3 o clock at night so this is going to be really short, but if you liked it PLEASE review because as far as I know there are not a lot of readers in this category so I'll be lucky to get a review or two. First time writing a Hart of Dixie fic, but I hope to write more soon if I have time! Thanks for reading!**


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